Little boy!

Hey! Its Amber! ( Vals niece )

My Mom had a baby boy!

His name's Kyler! ( I took this picture )

He's one week old!

It is sooo fun taking care of him!

( haha )

Miracles...

I've been contemplating the last hour or so some thoughts that have come into my mind about two miracles that have happened in the last couple of days. I'm not sure which is the bigger miracle.

First...My sister had her baby on Thursday...

That is a pretty big miracle. Not that she had a baby. Just the miracle of birth in general. I love holding brand new babies.

(I picked the better picture of me rather than the better picture of the baby. I'm a jerk!)

The 2nd Miracle just happened today....

I RAN A HALF-MARATHON!!!!

(Hey..I don't look too bad for just having run 13.1 miles) :)

(Had to get a picture of the professional photographer I hired...
Thanks Tim!!)

Now do you see what the dilemna is?? Child birth? or Valerie running a Half-Marathon!

How many times have I said "I would never be able to run a half-marathon". Now look at me! I did it! Not sure of my time yet, but it will be around 2 hours 23 minutes. I am very happy with that time. My knee has been bothering me a lot and I thought I'd have to walk more than I did. But, hey...why walk through pain, when you can run through it?

So glad to be able to go with Chellese and Estela too. Great job to both of them. They both had killer times. Well done to everyone who ran!! WE DID IT!!

My luck...

I love Bejeweled Blitz. I am addicted to it. So it seems the last week or so I have to end my day at work with a few games to help me "unwind". Usually however, it makes ornery because I am not so good at it and my friends always have huge scores and I can never beat them. Once I did...FINALLY. Then the next time I played all the scores were wiped clean.

Well today was a Bejeweled Blitz day. I ended work around 6:20 and swore I would just play until 6:30. Well 6:30 came and went and next thing I new...7:00pm. This is not uncommon, and normally would be fine. Tonight however, a storm was coming in. A friend texted "Thunder" to me and I knew I had to go home to sit on the porch and watch it Thunder and Lightning. So finally I leave.

I walk out to my car excited to get home to watch the storm, but instead.... My car is dead! Nothing! It was so dead I couldn't push the button to lock my doors. Of course there is no one else in the office because I had to waste 45 minutes playing Bejeweled. Had I left on time I could have had someone help me at work. Luckily I was able to summons some help, so what do I do while I wait? Go back in and play more Bejeweled. :) It really is addicting.

Meanwhile....It starts to POUR! lol Just my luck. Apparently I need a new battery. We get it started. We go get me a new battery (luckily my "help" runs an auto parts store so we can just "run grab one"). I drive home (my battery isn't installed yet) and turn off my car and it is still totally dead. NOTHING!

It's amazing to me that it was totally fine this morning when I go to work, but when I leave work (and I didn't leave my lights on either) there is not one ounce of juice? I should think they should give you some warning. But then, that wouldn't be my luck!

Ice Baths...

So in the "Runner's World" Magazine there was an article on soaking in an ice bath (which covers your legs) after a long run. So I thought I'd try it. I went for a run tonight. About 6 miles. To many this is a short run, but to me...A long run. My legs were feeling it a little when I got done, so I thought I'd go relax them in an ice bath. :) Ahhh.

I didn't have any ice this time, so I just filled up my tub with cold (very cold) water. Enough to cover my legs. I put on a fleece jacket and jumped in...Well ok...I very slowly lowered myself in.

I've decided Ice baths are both horrible and wonderful....Getting in is horrible. Getting out is wonderful. I thought it was hard walking up the stairs after my run. My legs felt a little like jello. But try walking down stairs after sitting in ice water for 10 minutes. Your legs are so frozen your feet feel like they're going to crack off. But once your legs start warming up it feels so nice.

Everyone should try it once. You never know. You may love it.

Improving ourselves...

Today I had an early morning meeting at work. My boss is great. He is always encouraging us to improve ourselves and find ways to become better people. This in turn helps us become better employees which is a win win.

I just loved something he said today..."We are in the positions we are because of the choices we make. No one else is to blame for our circumstances". (Or to praise if our circumstances are good). So if we want good things to happen we need to make good choices. Sounds easy enough.

Our subconcious mind is very powerful. If we feed it positive thoughts we produce positive results. If we feed it negative thoughts, well then guess what?? We produce negative results.

Thanks for the reminder...
I will stop harrassing the drivers on the road... Positive Thoughts!!

Dragster Racing...More than meets the eye!!

What a fun day I had Drag Racing...

Well...I didn't actually race. I was the golf cart driving supporter. Yea. One more thing I've never done. Gone Drag racing and Driven a golf cart. The golf cart part was a piece of cake and I didn't get yelled at once for being somewhere I shouldn't. (Although I was later told I shouldn't have stopped in one spot, but hey, no one yelled at me! Yea!)

I got to go back in the Restricted Area, cuz I got a coveted blue band around my wrist, so when it was time to race...I was right there at the starting line in the Golf Cart cheering!

I then floored the Golf cart and by the time I got to the end where the racers end, there were two other races that had happened. They're going 180+ mph past me! yikes.

I learned a lot about Drag racing that I had no idea about. And I still don't know anything.

Here they are lining up to get ready to race...

Two of them all ready to start!

After we were done we sat at the finish line to watch some and we went up in the stands and watched a bunch of others. There were funny cars, motorcycles, trucks...

They even have a Jr. Dragster section for kids. They can start racing at 8 years old. Here are a couple of the Jr. Dragsters.

I pretty much sat in an air-conditioned trailer, chatted with dragster neighbors, napped, colored, ate, blew bubbles, and took lots of golf cart rides. :)

It was a long day. But overall was a lot of fun!